Visual artist Ali Rahimi from Afghanistan is the ICORN resident in Gävle

May 22, 2026

Photo:

Ali Rahimi. Credits: Reza Rostami.

Ali Rahimi is an artist and art teacher from Afghanistan, with over 20 years of experiences. He holds a degree in experimental art and is the winner of the 2023 Cultures of Resistance Award. In October 2025, Ali arrived in Sweden, where he began his two-year ICORN residency in Gävle. Ali is the fourth ICORN resident in the city, where he continues to work as an artist.

Rahimi’s work explores social and political issues, including the human condition shaped by experiences of migration, belonging, women’s rights, and the mistreatment of immigrants and refugees. You can read more about the themes explored and the methods used in Ali’s work in an interview he gave to Consequences Forum.

*Ali Rahimi’s ‘Kabul Airport’ (2024). Mixed media on canvas. From the collection ‘A Quiet Place’.*

Between 2015 and 2023, Rahimi held four solo exhibitions and participated in 15 group exhibitions in Afghanistan, Iran, Armenia, Australia, Qatar, and Norway. These include:

Solo exhibition, Soban Gallery (2016)
Group exhibition: ‘Nimroz’, featuring 50 contemporary Afghan artists, Tehran (2017)
Solo exhibition, Sayeh Gallery, Tehran (2017)
Participation in Art Fair Armenia (2018)
Group exhibition of Iranian and Armenian artists (2019)
Solo exhibition, Tehran (2020)
Group exhibition, Artattimlik platform (2021)
Group exhibition, Australia (2023)
Solo exhibition, O Gallery, Tehran (2023)
Participation in the Doha Naqsh-e Jahan Auction
Group exhibition ‘Can the Afghan Speak’, Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen, Norway (2024)

*A painting from Ali Rahimi’s collection ‘Around Here’.*

Following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Rahimi was no longer able to continue his work as a secular artist of Hazara ethnicity in Afghanistan.

Since arriving in Gävle in October 2025, Ali has continued working as an artist and has already been involved in several projects. He has also been featured in local media in Gävle, as well as in national outlets such as Sveriges Radio and SVT.

You can read Gävle ICORN City of Refuge’s press release about Ali here, as well as a welcome article by the Gävle Art Centre.

‍

Gävle ICORN City of Refuge

Gävle has been an ICORN City of Refuge since 2015. Through its collaboration with Gävle Art Centre (Konstcentrum), the city focuses on hosting artists at risk as its ICORN residents.

In addition to Ali Rahimi, Gävle has hosted three artists, feminist graphic designer, illustrator, and visual artist Sara Khayat (2023-2025), Kurdish Iranian sculptor Seywan Saeedian (2018-2020), and Syrian photographer and film director Issa Touma (2016-2018).